The subject matter herein relates generally to communication systems that utilize cable connectors.
Communication systems, such as network systems, servers, data centers, and the like, use large printed circuit boards, known as backplanes, to interconnect midplanes, daughtercards, line cards and/or switch cards. The communication systems use high speed differential connectors mounted to the backplane and high speed differential connectors mounted to the line cards and switch cards to transmit signals therebetween. The backplane interconnects the various connectors using traces along the circuit board.
As the density of the systems increase and as the requirements for high speed lines become more complex, achieving a baseline level of signal integrity can be challenging. At least some systems have replaced the traditional backplanes with cabled backplane systems. In cabled backplane systems, cable connectors of a tray directly engage mating connectors of line cards and switch cards. A number of cable connectors may be mounted to a single tray, and a number of such trays may be inserted into and secured within a chassis of the backplane system. The trays may be positioned to engage, for example, daughtercard assemblies that include the mating connectors.
It is also desirable to increase the operating frequency of the network system, such as by increasing data transmission rates. Electrical connector systems that operate with data transmission rates above 10 Gbps (Gigabits/second) are often vulnerable to electromagnetic interference (EMI). In conventional designs, EMI is reduced or suppressed by surrounding the chassis with a metal cage. However, in order to perform maintenance on an individual tray, all of the trays in the chassis have to be powered down. An individual tray is not “hot swappable” during system operation. A need exists to replace an individual tray during system operation without interrupting power to all of the trays in the chassis.